Google URL shortener opens to public with new website

Google has given the Google URL Shortener service its own website over at goo.gl. The search giant says it launched the site because users were asking for a direct way to use the service. Google wants to make it the most stable, most secure, and fastest URL shortener on the Web, and here is the progress it has made so far:

• Stability: near 100 percent uptime since initial launch, and continual improvements have been made to keep it more stable and more robust.
• Security: added automatic spam detection based on the same type of filtering technology used in Gmail.
• Speed: more than doubled the speed in just over nine months.

Furthermore, if you sign in to your Google Account, you'll now see a list of URLs you've shortened in the past. The details link next to any of them will show public real-time analytics data, including traffic over time, top referrers, and visitor profiles. Google plans to release an official API for goo.gl that will let developers shorten URLs, expand URLs, and view analytics from directly within their applications.

The service also lets you add ".info" to the end of a goo.gl link to find out more about it, or .qr to see its QR code. For example, goo.gl/ygPy is the link for this article. Anyone can head over to goo.gl/ygPy.info to see more information.

Google first introduced its URL shortener last December as part of Google Toolbar and Feedburner, which it acquired in June 2007. Since the initial release, the technology has been integrated into many other Google products including News, Blogger, Maps, Moderator, and Picasa Web Albums.